FORMER PRESIDENTS OF CSI

(Sources of Inspiration)

YEARS

PHOTOGRAPH

NAMES

BIOGRAPHY

1965-1968

Prof. R Narasimhan (1926-2007) often referred to as Bhisma of Computer Science and Technology in India made a significant contribution for the development of computer science education, research and technology in India in the early stages.

Prof. R Narasimhan was instrumental in setting up the Computer Society of India and served as its first President. He also played a key role in the setting of then Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC), which later became a full-fledged computer company under Prof. Narasimhan;s chairmanship. Under the leadership of Prof. R. Narasimhan, an autonomous unit, National Centre for Software Development and Computing Techniques (NCSDCT) was created within TIFR. Prof. Narasimhan was the Director of this unit. He served as advisor to the Department of Electronics, Government of India in a variety of ways.

1969-1972

Maj Gen Balasubramanian was a key player in the first four decades of computing in India. He had graduated from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras, in the fifties, and went on to serve in the Army Corps of Signals. He was one of the founders of the Computer Society of India (CSI) and had served as the first Hon. Secretary of the Society. That was during 1965-69. He then took over from Prof R Narasimhan, the founding President, with whom he had worked closely. Brig Balasubramanian, as he was popularly known in CSI for over a decade, served as President CSI during 1969-72.

1972-1973

Padma Bhushan

Prof N S RAMASWAMY- National Professor, HRD Ministry, Government of India Prof NS Ramaswamy has more than 50 years of varied experience in the Management field as Management consultant, Educationist, Teacher Researcher, Institution Builder and a Manager. He is Founder Director of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Prior to this he was Director, NITIE Bombay, Professor in Bajaj Institute of Management Bombay, consultant/advisor Anna Institute of Management Chennai and Institute of Management Trivandrum. Prof Ramaswamy was Chairman of Animal Welfare Board, Review Committee on Animal power under Indian Council of Agricultural Research, World Productivity Congress, Institute of Industrial Engineering, Computer Society of India.

1973-1974

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1974-1976

Faqir Chand Kohli (born 28 February 1924) popularly known as F. C. Kohli is an Indian industrialist. He is frequently referred to as the Father of the Indian Software Industry due to his significant contribution in Indian IT industry. He was the founder and first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software consultancy company. He has also worked as the deputy general manager of the Tata Power Company. He is also on the board of governors of College of Engineering, Pune. He was one of the Founder of Computer Society of India.

1976-1978

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1978-1980

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1980-1982

Professor P V S Rao has over 55 years of experience in IT, spanning research, development, management, policy making and teaching. He was a Director of the Computer Maintenance Corporation. He is past President, Fellow and Life Time Achievement Awardee of the Computer Society of India, Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, Chairman of IEEE India Council and Fellow of all four major Indian Science/Engineering Academies. He is recipient of the Padma Shri (1987) from the President of India, the Om Prakash Bhasin Award (Electronics and Telecommunications 1987), the VASVIK (1987) awards [Electrical and Electronics (combined) for 1985], the Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (1976) and the Millennium Medal of IEEE in the year 2000. He was the Regional Distinguished Visitor of IEEE Computer Society for Region 10 (Japan and South East Asia) for the year 1981-82. He retired as Senior Professor and Head of the Computer Systems and Communications Group at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay and has been Adviser to TCS, Tata Infotech, Tata Teleservices and Satyam Life Net

1982-1984

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1984-1986

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1986-1988

Pioneering IT education
Not just an academician par excellence, Mahabala has also been one of the
pioneers of IT education in India, especially in the IITs. He was the one to
initiate the computer science program at IIT- Kanpur in 1965, the first in
India, which later blossomed under the tutelage of Rajaram. He also set up a
national computer center at IIT-Madras. Here in 1985, he started an
International Conference on VLSI design as a small workshop that has today grown
into a major event. Even today he is remembered for over 25 courses that he
taught in computer science. Mahabala was also CSI president, member of the
Electronic Commission and an expert member of the IT Standards Board setup by
the Government of Karnataka.

1988-1990

Hemant Sonawala one of the founders of India’s information technology (IT) industry and chairman of Hinditron Group.

Sonawala was one of the founders of the domestic IT industry, having started Hinditron way back in 1966 and its computer division in 1971. He was also the founder of Digital Equipment India, which later became a part of HP India in 1988. Digital Equipment India was the first technology IPO in India.A visionary, Sonawala helped lay the foundations on which the industry grew and subsequently had a meteoric rise. He was one of the founder of the Computer Society of India. He was also the president of CSI.
The Hinditron Group is engaged in IT, scientific instrumentation and tele-communication services.

1990-1992

Dr Rattan K Datta had his M Sc (Hons School) degree in Physics from Panjab University in First class and Ph.D from IIT-Delhi on “Monsoon Dynamics & Atmospheric Modeling”. He also underwent advanced training in modeling & computing in India & later in USA & Japan under a UN fellowship program. Dr Datta has carried out intensive research in the emerging disciplines & has published over 100 research papers in National & International Journals. UNDP Expert in East Africa ‘data processing expert’& Meteorological advisor, 1976-78. Chief Scientist G.O.I during international Monsoon Experiment (Monex-79). Director International Monsoon data Management Centre 1984-87. Advisor & founder head ‘National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting of Dept of Science & technology, G.O.I. The centre had the first supercomputer Cray X-MP dedicated for Research on monsoon modeling. Established a few institutes of advanced learning in the country.

1992-1994

Brig S V S Chowdhry (Retd), a member of the Board of Governors of the ICEIT was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the CSI and the IT profession.

Brig Chowdhry has been a member of the CSI for four decades. He was President of the CSI during 1992-94 and received the Fellowship Award of the CSI earlier in 1990. He has also represented the CSI in the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
He was also Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Safety & Quality Forum of the Institution of Engineers (India) for three years.

1994-1996

He was the president of Computer Society of India for the period 1994-96. He got the CSI fellowship in the year 1998. He is now Director General at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

1996-1998

Dr Srinivasan Ramani: founding director of National Centre for Software Technology, and first director of Hewlett Packard Research Labs, India. He was inducted by the Internet Society into their Hall of Fame in 2014

1998-2000

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2000-2002

He was the president of Computer Society of India for the period 2000-02. He got the CSI fellowship in the year 1996.

2002-2004

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2004-2005

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2005-2007

Mr Lalit Sawhney was the President of the Computer Society of India for the period 2005-07, IT Man of the Year and one of Computerworld US’s Outstanding IT Users in the World, and. He is also a Fellow of the CSI.

Lalit Sawhney is a well-respected veteran of the IT industry, with broad IT management experience; formulating strategy and leading large teams in the areas of Applications, Infrastructure and Governance. Lalit Sawhney has extensive domain knowledge in the areas of Consumer Products, Retail / Distributionand Telecom.

2007-2009

Prof. Aggarwal, born in 1948, obtained his Engineering Degree in 1968 and Ph.D Degree in 1975. He served
as Founder Vice Chancellor of GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi for a period of 10 years. He has been
President of IETE for the period 2002-04 and President, Computer Society of India for the period 2007-09. He
was conferred Life Time Achievement Award by IETE as also by Computer Society of India.

2009-2010

Mr Mahalingam, as Seturaman Mahalingam was popularly known, is a chartered accountant by qualification. He began his IT career as a consultant with Tata Consultancy Services in 1970. In his 42-year career with TCS, Mr. Mahalingam has been involved in myriad aspects of the company’s operations and growth, before being appointed as the chief financial officer of the company in February 2003 and as executive director in August 2007

A former president of Computer Society of India (CSI), Mr. Mahalingam was also at the helm of the Southern Region of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the Institute of Management Consultants of India. Mr. Mahalingam was chosen as the best ‘CFO of 2009’ by Business Today. He was also voted as the best CFO of India, (2010) by Finance Asia magazine’s annual poll of investors and analysts. He was conferred the ‘CFO of the Year’ award 2006 announced by International Market Assessment (IMA). Mr. Mahalingam was also the winner of CNBC TV18’s Best Performing CFO Award in the Technology Sector for 2007.

2010-2011

Dr. P. Thrimurthy, a Ph.D holder in Theory of Numbers from Gujarat University, was one of the founding fathers of computer education in India. He has been the pioneer in initiating computer courses and inter-disciplinary courses in various colleges and schools in this part of the country.
He had been Indian Chaperon for International Software Competitions held in 8 countries. Extended services as Chairman of International Software Competitions held in three countries. He is a Winner of National Computer Education award by NACET (2000), Co-winner of National e-Governance award on RAJiV: e-Village (2004). Prof. Thrimurthy Pioneered the development of e-learning software for Adult Literacy (1988). Transferred technology on Punjabi & Hindi to Govt. of India. He has also obtained Copyright on his software tools (L-18158/99).

2011-2012

Senior Consultant to TCS Oil & Gas Global Practice. Former General Manager IT and CIO Manufacturing of India’s Second Largest Oil Major BPCL. Held highest office of President at National apex body of IT Professionals CSI and President of SEARCC. Founder President of CSI CIO Club 1999-2008

Visiting Faculty to School of Management , IIT Mumbai and K J Somaya. Institute of Management.

A natural Mentor, leader and coach and Past President of Computer Society of India, apex body of 1 lakhs IT professionals & academicians during 2011-2012

2012-2013

Programmer, Development Professional and Internet Governance Practitioner, associated with ICANN, ISOC, IEEE and InApp. Fellow and Past President of Computer Society of India. Chair, APRALO, ICANN and Member, 2017 HAC, IEEE.

2013-2014

Experienced Chief Architect with a demonstrated history of working in the computer networking industry. Skilled in Research, Cloud Computing, Government, Strategic Planning, and Business Strategy. Strong engineering professional with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused on Workload Characterization and Large Scale System Design, from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

2014-2015

Mr. H.R. Mohan graduated from IIT Madras in 1976. The installation of IBM 370 at IIT Madras during mid-1973 interested him to consider Computing as a career.
Associated with Computer Society of India from 1975 (as student member) and became its President in 2014. Became the youngest Fellow of CSI in 2000.

2015-2016

Prof. Bipin V .Mehta is currently working as Associate Dean, School of Computer Studies (formerly AES Institute of Computer Studies), Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad. He is founder Director of H. L. Institute of Computer Applications (1999) and AES Institute of Computer Studies (2000) established by Ahmedabad Education Society. Before joining Ahmedabad University, he has served MNCs and leading textile industry holding senior positions. He owned a leading software & consultancy firm in Ahmedabad during 1987 to 1999 providing services to various domains.

2016-2017

Dr Anirban Basu (www.anirbanbasu.in) holds a Masters and PhD in Computer Science for his work on High Performance Computing.

Dr. Basu has more than 35 years of experience in Academia, advanced Research &Development, commercial Software Industry, Consultancy and Corporate Training. He has served in Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, CDAC, Siemens Information Systems Ltd., Computer Associates, etc. in senior / top management positions. He was President of Computer Society of India(CSI) from 2016-2017.